Career in Arts Journalism

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I wanted to create another thread, but concerning arts journalism. I would like to write for travel magazines, pop culture, and television shows. I also would love writing stories for higher education, the things we see on the New York Times. I really do not want to be a traditional journalist, but some type of arts print journalist. I love to write though and it is a passion. </p>

<p>A challenge for me has been trying to find a college which will fit all my ideal goals. I definitely want to major in print journalism, but would a double major with a field of my interest be a good idea? I love to travel, so would majoring in Hotel and Travel Management and Journalism be a good idea? I do not want to work for a hotel, but it would make me familiar with what I am writing. Is there such thing as a Pop Culture major? My dream job is to work for the National Geographic Traveler. </p>

<p>There are a lot of schools which do not offer journalism majors. I am not certain if I will go to graduate school, so I want a good undergrad school. Although, Syracuse U has the perfect graduate program: Goldring</a> Arts Journalism</p>

<p>I have loved some liberal arts schools, but I don't know if an English or Communications major would do. I have read very different opinions on this subject. Conn College and Vassar are prime examples of schools I like, but no journalism program. I would really like an liberal arts school in an urban area. However, NYU is my top choice right now and I have a lot of schools on my list. I really would like to be in the Northeast or Cali.</p>

<p>Other schools I have a strong interest in are:
USC
Northwestern
Fordham LC
Chapman
Pepperdine
Loyola Marymount
Sarah Lawrence
GWU
Villanova
American
Boston U
Northeastern
Emerson</p>

<p>Northstarmom- Thanks for the suggestion on the book, but wouldn't newspapers/magazines be worried about printing work from a teenager with no experience? I will be on my high school newspaper next year.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any career/or college suggestions? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Many journalism majors require a double major, so I would focus on English/ journalism/ communications and the “arts” field you enjoy: music, theatre, film, etc. That way you will have a specific expertise and the communictions skills needed.</p>

<p>I think one of the most important things is to have access to good internships. If you can network and prove that you are a good writer/ hard worker, your actual major is not as important as the experience on your resume.</p>

3

<p>Most people who write for the NYTimes (or are good enough/established enough to actually make a living writing feature stories) are well educated journalists with extensive experience. So your best bet is to get a well rounded education. Work on getting into a good university or LAC. Most of the schools you listed would be good (though I think Northeastern is too focused on fields that are specific & practical-in-orientation.)<br>
A journalism degree per se isn’t necessary to get your foot in the door, but an extensive portfolio of writing is. So write for the school paper. Get internship experience. Submit articles for various papers and magazines on a freelance basis. Read everything you can get your hands on, from popular fiction to popular science. Find favorites and analyze their style and approach. (For example, I really like the feature writing of Paul Theroux and Susan Orlean) I’d say forget classes in hotel management, unless that’s a backup plan. Focus instead on history, political science, anthropology, literature, the arts-- etc. Travel. Learn a foreign language fluently. (A travel/international writer who is limited to English will not be taken terribly seriously by serious publications.) This is a field where being outgoing and undaunted are an absolute must.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the feedback. I definitely want to double major and have a lot of internships. I have an option of going to UGA or another instate school for free. I am really going to apply to instate schools as a last resort option. I really don’t think there would be much opportunities compared to NY or LA. </p>

<p>My problem with freelance journalism is it wouldn’t give me a steady income, but if I do it part time from my real job that would be ideal. I also have an interest in television writing, anthropology, holocaust studies, and the entertainment business (talent agent). Journalism is my strongest passion though and I want to end up doing what I love, but would like a steady income over time. I am not in it for the money, if I was I would choose a different career. I also have acted since I was six and would love to audition while I’m in college. I am very outgoing though and I have a great personality. I am not great at learning foreign languages though, I just don’t have that gift like some people do.</p>

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<p>Very good advice from katliamom. As a longtime journalist and editor of the sort you aspire to be, I would agree with everything she says, and add: Find a few sites you like and work hard to get some posts on them. There’s more opportunity in the digital world than in the print world. </p>

<p>Be aware that actual full-time jobs writing for magazines like Traveler are incredibly rare. Most of those writers are freelance, and those sorts of freelance gigs do not go to “new” young writers. The job possibilities in that world are more on the editorial side, and sometimes that allows for some writing, too, so consider taking a good copyediting class and working as an editor on student publications/sites. You might like it.</p>

<p>I’d consider Northwestern, USC and Emerson up front, but you have many other good ones on the list.</p>

6

<p>Thanks! How would one get some posts on these websites? I know someone else recommend getting a book called the Writers Market. You said it was very hard to get freelance jobs at places like the Traveler. Would newspapers/magazines let a 16 year old even submit things? Wouldn’t that be rare? </p>

<p>I wrote an article on a Holocaust Survivor I met. I may submit this story to a Jewish magazine. I really wouldn’t mind interning at a Holocaust museum and writing. I am going to contact the local newspaper about interning.</p>

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<p>Check out Glimpse National Geographic, [Glimpse</a> - Your Stories From Abroad](<a href=“http://glimpse.org/]Glimpse”>http://glimpse.org/), which publishes travel articles by college students.</p>

<p>Yes, there are colleges with majors in pop culture. Sometimes you have to dig a little to discover them. They may be part of the American Studies program, or film studies. Here’s one example, at Middlebury: [Film</a> & Media Culture | Middlebury](<a href=“Film and Media Culture | Middlebury College”>Film and Media Culture | Middlebury College).</p>

<p>You can find Writer’s Market at the library. I used it a long time ago; now I wonder if you could get the same info by just doing research on the Internet. Go to the website of any publication you are interested in and search for how to contribute. I’m sure many places have their writer’s guidelines available to download.</p>

<p>Many beginning writers somehow manage to survive as freelancers (that writer who broke the McChrystal story for Rolling Stone is a freelancer, I believe). It is not easy to have a full time job and freelance.</p>

<p>I agree with the advise above. Get clips, get experience. Get a good liberal arts education.</p>

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<p>"Would newspapers/magazines let a 16 year old even submit things? Wouldn’t that be rare? "</p>

<p>If a newspaper accepts and pays for freelance work (something that is rare now since newspapers are so short of money, many have stopped using freelance work even for hard to cover international reporting), the quality of the work – not the age of the writer – is what matters.</p>

<p>Older S was covering our local college sports for several of the country’s biggest and best regarded newspapers when he was your age. The newspapers had no idea how old he was. They just knew his work was very good. He was also getting paid per article for doing this. He had gotten his start several years earlier writing a column (which was well researched) and articles for free for a community weekly newspaper. Often community weeklies are the place to start. They are very low budget, have very small staffs, and often are happy to take on and train assertive, hard working people who’ll volunteer with them.</p>

<p>A friend of mine is a professional journalist at The Washington Post. He’s from New Mexico. When he was in high school, he sold an article about a New Mexico tourist attraction to the New York Times. They had no idea he was a high school student. They bought the article because it was well written and researched.</p>

<p>–</p>

<p>Note to everyone who wants to eventually be a reporter in a specialized field like art, sports, education, etc. The most important thing that you can do now is to become the best writer and reporter you can. This means covering the most challenging stories you can – including those involving business and crime. In addition, read the best literature and best newspapers you can (I suggest the NY Times, Washington Post, and St. Petersburg Times. All are well known for the quality of their writing and reporting). Learn, too, about the field that you wish to eventually report. This means reading everything connected with it.</p>

<p>The specialty reporters for things like arts, travel, sports, are exceptional journalists whose writing/reporting has to be stellar to get assigned to those areas. Just liking those areas isn’t enough. You also have to be smart enough and a good enough journalist to be able to cover crime and business stories related to your specialty, and you have to be able to write with the kind of flair that will make your story a good read. Typically, before getting assigned to such specialty beats, journalists make their mark and hone their skills by doing general assignment reporting, including covering the crime beat.</p>

<p>Education reporting is something that most journalists get to do just as most journalist start off by being general assignment reporters. When it comes to the highest levels of education reporting – covering education for the NY Times, for instance-- those reporters also have been excellent at general assignment reporting and crime reporting before getting a specialty beat.</p>

9

<p>I agree with all that’s been said here. Get out there and write, write, write. Especially for blogs and other digital media that might be more open to free (it would almost certainly be free at first) commentary. Also, start your own blog covering the stories that are of interest to you, so that you can get practice in daily writing. Don’t get too hung up in majoring in journalism, that can actually be not the most helpful major for a future journalist. If you want to write about the arts, it might be good to major, double major, or at least minor in something like Art History (to understand the contemporary, you have to understand what came before it), English, psychology, etc. </p>

<p>If you go to college in a small town, at an LAC or similar, there may be a local paper in that town that takes students as interns or string reporters, during the term or the summer. I knew several people at Smith that worked for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, driving into the small Berkshires towns to cover stories. It’s not exactly glamorous, but they were able to build a book of published articles in a professional newspaper and that made a huge difference for them.</p>

10

<p>All the advice here is good, but I think you have to recognize that “print” journalism is in terrible crisis right now, and no one has any real idea what the future holds for it. You can absolutely do everything right and be nowhere near having a job or being able to support yourself doing the kind of writing you are talking about. The one young (~30) person I know who has a great job in arts journalism spent 3-4 years doing hand-to-mouth freelancing (after graduating from Harvard) before getting even a part-time salary, and his “great” job in arts journalism has weekly pay that probably resembles his investment banker classmates’ weekly cabfare budget. Everyone interested in this is hustling full-time, and has some sort of zine or blog with friends so they can keep writing and build cred. If you write well, and are half-decent at self-promotion, you can become a bona fide “scenester” in whatever scene interests you . . . but you will still need a day job, and it may not be in journalism.</p>

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<p>early_college - I would not rule out UGA/Grady, especially if you are eligible for the Hope Scholarship. That would free up money that you could use for grad school, or give you the flexibility/freedom to travel and develop your craft. My older daughter graduated from UGA with a double major in Magazines/History. She had several good internships and got a job right out of college, as an associate editor for a small regional magazine publisher in Atlanta. Her internships were in the Georgia area, but other students did travel to NYC or elsewhere for internships. Although her entry-level first job was not the most exciting work, after two years she moved on to work for a large corporation in the Atlanta area, hired as an editor for employee material. Her job has expanded over the last several years and she has developed many new skills. She loves it! I have had the opportunity to meet many of her friends who also graduated from Grady and I am impressed with their intelligence, the variety of exciting jobs they hold (due to great writing ability) and their commitment to the city of Atlanta, in terms of chariable activities. I know it is human nature to look down on opportunities in our own backyard, but take the time and look at UGA. It is not Northwestern, USC or Emerson, but with the current economy, if you can get your education for free, then I would give it a chance.</p>

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<p>I agree with Dogwood about Grady. It has a good reputation and is affordable, something very important in these economic times and when considering a low paying career with shrinking job options.</p>

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<p>I agree with JHS; getting the kind of job the OP describes is a dream and it is going to depend at least as much on personality and talent (and maybe connections) as on where he/she goes to college. What other posters have said about specific schools does make them sound very appealing, but I think getting a solid education, not necessarily in a “communications” field, is the cornerstone to future success and will keep the OP from being boxed into a corner in a painfully competitive job market.</p>

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<p>Wow, thanks for all the great feedback everyone. </p>

<p>I am definitely going to start writing some stories and submitting it to newspapers/magazines. I did try to create an acting blog a while back, but I really didn’t like it. I am going to learn more about online journalism. Originally, I wanted to become an actor and journalism was a back up career. I am now thinking I need a back up career for journalism too! Everything I seem to love is really hard to get into. If I wanted to become a talent agent that is also very hard to get into. Law School is something I’d also consider.</p>

<p>UGA is definitely an option right now. It may not be my ideal school, but college is very expensive these days and my parents cannot afford a 50k school even with financial aid. I have a brother who will be a senior and is probably going to tech school first and later to culinary school and a younger brother (13) and a seven month sister. I have also looked into Georgia College and State U, Georgia’s public liberal arts school. The con for GCSU is the location and name recognition. I have also looked in the SUNY’s (Binghamton, Geneseo, New Paltz) which are more affordable for OOS. It may not even be worth it to go there if I can go to UGA which is higher ranked and free. If I went to UGA, I would want to go to NY or LA after college. I could save up for graduate school, study abroad, and save my parents thousands of dollars and myself big loans. It isn’t the greatest fit though lol. </p>

<p>I am a he btw and an upcoming junior.</p>

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<p>check out JMU. They have a lot of journalism classes/majors that are geared toward modern media. Check out the courses for the “converged media” major. A young woman I know is going there in hopes of getting into music journalism (she’s also doing a ton of stuff on the side–band promotion, writing for various music blogs, etc, to augment her resume and connections in the industry.)</p>

<p><a href=“http://smad.jmu.edu/Major_Requirements_2009-2011.pdf[/url]”>http://smad.jmu.edu/Major_Requirements_2009-2011.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Other majors there also look like they might work for you.</p>

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<p>" have also looked in the SUNY’s (Binghamton, Geneseo, New Paltz) which are more affordable for OOS."</p>

<p>UGA is better known for journalism. I’ve never heard anything about the journalism programs at the SUNYs that you mention.</p>

<p>“Originally, I wanted to become an actor and journalism was a back up career. I am now thinking I need a back up career for journalism too!”</p>

<p>You are exactly right!</p>

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<p>I will def apply to UGA. It will basically come down to how much aid I get. I will not be in too much debt for the career I want. </p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestion, I will def look into JMU. I am also interested in Brandeis and just looked into Goucher College. I think I will apply to some LACs (Conn College, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence), but will mostly apply to schools with journalism majors.</p>

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<p>I just found another major that seems really interesting. [Bachelor</a> of Arts in Narrative Studies](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/general_studies/showcase/Narrative_Studies/index.htm]Bachelor”>http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/general_studies/showcase/Narrative_Studies/index.htm)</p>

<p>It seems one of a kind and I could double major with print journalism. Is there any other school with a Narrative Studies type program?</p>

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<p>Interesting find, early college. The best journalists are good story tellers. Good luck to you.</p>

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<p>Thanks, maybe a degree like that could help me.</p>